Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Today's interagency announcement is a welcome first step in the efforts of the federal banking agencies to combat the increasing occurrence of fraud, particularly check fraud. Check fraud has grown substantially over the past several years, resulting in harm to banks, especially community banks, and the consumers and businesses who are the victims of fraud. While this has been a well-known problem for several years, efforts by regulators have been slow to advance, and seem to have done little to address this growing threat.

We need a comprehensive strategy to develop and implement an effective, coordinated approach that is focused on preventing payments fraud and assisting consumers, businesses, and supervised institutions. As Vice Chair for Supervision, I am committed to working together with a wide range of state and federal partners, including law enforcement, to address this issue. I look forward to reviewing the public feedback in response to the request for information.